BJP rebels in Himachal to support AAP

An outfit comprising Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rebels Saturday announced it would support the AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) in all four Lok Sabha seats in Himachal Pradesh for the May 7 polls.

"Our fight is basically against corruption and since AAP is also fighting on the same front, we have decided to extend support to it," Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP) president Maheshwar Singh told IANS here.

He said his party would neither go back to the BJP nor would support the Congress.

Four-time former MP Maheshwar Singh said his party was trying for an alliance with the AAP but the latter wanted HLP to merge with it, which was not possible. "Now, we will support AAP candidates."

He categorically said there was no chance of his return to the saffron party with which he was associated for over four decades.

"We had raised some questions in the BJP before quitting it and till today, we got no answer. In such a condition, it is not possible for us to go back to the BJP," the legislator from Kullu said.

Maheshwar Singh along with former assembly speaker Radha Raman Shastri and two former ministers -- Shyama Sharma and Mohinder Sofat -- had resigned from the BJP ahead of the 2012 assembly elections.

They formed the HLP under the leadership of Maheshwar Singh and contested the assembly polls, winning a seat.

AAP has so far announced the candidature of sitting MP Rajan Sushant from the Kangra constituency. Sushant who was in the BJP, has joined AAP.

For quite some time, Sushant has been openly criticising state BJP leaders, including former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, for corruption.

Parliamentary polls will be held in Himachal Pradesh May 7.

Of the four parliamentary seats, the BJP won Shimla (reserved), Kangra and Hamirpur, while the Congress bagged Mandi in the 2009 elections.